Already in December, Sughra Hakim from Pakistan started her six-month stay as a guest researcher at ZB MED. For this she received a scholarship from the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan in the International Research Support Initiative Program. The biologist is doing her PhD at the National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering in Faisalabad on "Diversity of symbiotic and free-living bacteria associated with mung bean (Vigna radiata [L.] R. Wilczek)". Sughra Hakim uses her stay in Cologne to expand her knowledge in the field of data sciences: "Here at ZB MED, I am working with Professor Konrad Förstner, to perform expression analyses of plants after inoculation with different bacterial strains. This high-throughput transcriptomic analyses provide me an opportunity to get trained in bioinformatics and learn different tools to analyze RNA-seq data."

Elnaz Amanzadeh Jajin arrived in Cologne in February: "I am biologist interested in bioinformatics and this is why I am here! At ZB MED I can improve my skills and perform project on Transcriptome Analysis under supervision of Professor Foerstner." The Iranian Ministry of Science finances her six-month stay with a scholarship. Elnaz Amanzadeh Jajin is doing her PhD at the University of Isfahan in cellular and molecular biology with the topic "Studying the effect of SPION-QT on rat models of Alzheimers Disease in transcriptional level ".